Diagnosed today

4.30am and the pain is awful, sipping water to undry my mouth. Going to try mouth wash and soluble paracetamol. Don’t want to take any of the other painkillers, took codeine last night and I felt so sick. What I don’t get I didn’t have codeine in the hospital. I can see how people could easily become addicted when they are in this much pain, I will resist them the codeine and morphine. You guys were right, thought this pain isn’t too bad, and this morning it’s hit me like a ton of bricks :( just hoping after all this they have found the primary site 

I had a considerable amount of morphine for the latter part of my radiotherapy. No choice really. Your body gets used to it yes but that is not addiction and provided you withdraw the stuff slowly over a couple of weeks you won't get uncomfortable

Debbie60 said:

What I don’t get I didn’t have codeine in the hospital.

I bet you had tramadol or some such though 

Debbie  believe me paracetamol won’t touch the pain. It’s rare fir anyone to get through the radiotherapy without strong painkillers. 
May the end of radiotherapy I was in 8x30 mg co codomol plus 40 mil of oramorph. My oncologist s words were csncer is bad enough csncer and pain is intolerable that’s why we gave pain killers. The clue is in the name pain killers. 
Hazel x

Thanks Hazel

will follow your advice.

my Son said the same you wouldn’t have been prescribed them if you didn’t need them xx 

Debbie - I feel your pain!  I did not get on with co-codamol etc so talked to my GP as, although I found paracetamol and ibuprofen great at hitting the pain the 6 hour dosage (even staggered) did not keep it in check so he prescribed some oral morphine.  Don't be scared to take it in the short term that you will need it for.

Even if they do not have the primary they will have removed key areas where it could spread to so it was not a wasted operation- at the moment I think I am the king of having bits taken out looking for cancer 

It is interesting what you say about the paracetamol.  For me paracetamol was very good at knocking down the pain.  I knew that if I took some 20 mins before eating I could numb the throat enough to make swallowing tolerable.

On the other hand morphine was more a placebo than having any real affect on me.  I know a small % of N Europeans cannot readily metabolise morphine and I think I am in that spectrum.  Certainly I always ask for anything other than morphine now and that seems to be more effective.

I find cold things go down easier, water with ice in it, seems to wash food down better, although it’s only my third day so sticking to soup, mashed veg snd cornflakes. Waiting for results, discharge paper said that the I had firm nodules palpable at the base of my left tongue in keeping with the increased uptake on PET scan, other area all appear normal. I am hoping that it means it is in that tonsil, as I don’t totally understand the report x

I had my surgery 2 weeks ago and I’m still taking codeine, paracetamol and ibuprofen. After my hospital discharge I cut down on the pain meds the first couple of days and I couldn’t sleep or eat properly. As soon as I went back on regular painkillers it’s been so much better. Our bodies are going through so much already, we need to give it a break. 

Definitely take whatever you need. At the end of radiotherapy and first few weeks of recovery I was on fentanyl patches, paracetamol and oral morphine. Whatever was needed to help me eat and recover. 13 weeks post treatment I was completely painkiller free, having dropped myself back down the way my doctors had built me up. You can suffer enough, no need to add to it. As everyone will say on here too, take the meds by rote, don't wait for the pain. Hope you find what works best for you!